Instructor: Yixin Sun
TA: Xin Liu (xl9jv), Zhifan Lu (zl2da)
Lecture time: 3:30-4:45pm TuTh
Location: Olsson 009
Office hours (check Collab for most up-to-date hours):
Mon: 4-6pm, Xin (Discord)
Wed: 2-4pm, Zhifan (Discord)
Thu: 11am-12pm, Yixin (Rice 403)
This course investigates security and privacy issues that stem from the Internet infrastructure. We will cover topics such as BGP security, DNS security, DDoS attacks, and anonymous communications. We will also look at various mechanisms to secure the Internet infrastructure as well as privacy enhancing technologies. Note that this course will involve literature review and paper presentation/discussion.
No formal prerequisites, but assumes basic familiarity with programming in languages like C and Python. Some background in computer networks (e.g., equivalence of CS4457) will be helpful.
| Dates | Topic | Paper | Notes |
| Thu 1/20 | Intro/Network Architecture | - | Classes start |
| Tue 1/25 | HTTP and TLS | - | |
| Thu 1/27 | TCP/UDP | - | |
| Tue 2/1 | Addressing and Naming | - | |
| Thu 2/3 | Control plane (routing) | - | |
| Tue 2/5 | Data plane (forwarding) | - | |
| Thu 2/10 | Internet scanning | ZMap | Paper reading starts |
| Tue 2/15 | Routing attack | SICO | |
| Thu 2/17 | Routing defense | Path-end validation | HW1 due on Sunday |
| Tue 2/22 | DDoS/Botnet | Mirai | |
| Thu 2/24 | TCP attacks | Attack discovery | |
| Tue 3/1 | DNS attacks | Cache poisoning | |
| Thu 3/3 | DNS defense | DNSSEC | |
| Tue 3/8 | (Spring break) | - | HW2 due on Monday |
| Thu 3/10 | (Spring break) | - | |
| Tue 3/15 | Certificates | Certificate Transparency | |
| Thu 3/17 | Malware/APT | Nazca | Project team/proposal due on Saturday |
| Tue 3/22 | Anomaly detection | Bro | |
| Thu 3/24 | Secure programmable dataplane | Poseidon | |
| Tue 3/29 | Anonymity systems | Tor | |
| Thu 3/31 | Fingerprinting | k-fingerprinting | |
| Tue 4/5 | Censroship measurement | ICLab | |
| Thu 4/7 | Censorship circumvention | Telex | |
| Tue 4/12 | Online tracking | Online tracking | |
| Thu 4/14 | Future Internet | SCION | Paper reading ends |
| Tue 4/19 | Project presentation | ||
| Thu 4/21 | Project presentation | ||
| Tue 4/26 | Project presentation | ||
| Thu 4/28 | Project presentation | ||
| Tue 5/3 | Project presentation | ||
Homework assignments: 30% (2 assignments, 15% each)
Final project (presentation and report): 40%
Paper reviews and presentation: 30%
Late Policy
All assignments are due via Collab at 11:59pm on the due date.
Grace period: 12 hours (intended to cover real issues, e.g., internet issues, server down)
10% penalty per day late
There is no textbook for the course that you need to purchase. We will distribute materials as needed.
There are several sites for the course that you can utilize:
Course website (this one): informational purpose
Collab: Announcements, assignment submissions, course materials and recordings, Zoom links
Piazza: Long-form questions, notes, private messages for faculty/TA, regrade request
Discord: Online office hours and meetings, quick chat, off-topic discussion
Please direct all course-related questions to Piazza (or go to office hours). If you want to discuss other topics or have personal/team issues that can and should only be handled by a professor, please email me directly (ys3kz).